1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a 3-dimensional (3D) ultrasound system and a method for operating a 3D ultrasound system capable of detecting edges from a plurality of side images of an object in a human body with respect to a region of interest (ROI) image in an image of the object and automatically measuring the thickness of the image using the detected edges.
2. Description of the Related Art
An ultrasound system is an apparatus that irradiates an ultrasound signal from a surface of a human body towards a target part, that is, an object such as a fetus, an internal organ, and the like, under the body surface and obtains an image of a monolayer or blood flow in soft tissue from information in the reflected ultrasound signal. The ultrasound system has been widely used together with other image diagnostic systems such as X-ray diagnostic systems, computerized tomography (CT) scanners, magnetic resonance image (MRI) systems and nuclear medicine diagnostic systems because of its various merits such as a small size, a low price, real-time image display, and high stability through elimination of any radiation exposure.
Also, a method for diagnosing a Down's syndrome fetus is to measure the thickness of a fetus' nuchal translucency (NT) through an ultrasound system. Here, the ultrasound system may measure the thickness of the fetus' NT, using a figure template controlled according to a combination of a trackball and a set button, controlled by a user.
Accordingly, when the thickness of an object or a partial region is measured using the ultrasound system, intervention of a user is unavoidable, and it is impossible to precisely measure the thickness of the object due to the intervention of the user.
Therefore, an ultrasound system capable of easily providing a precise measurement result by automating a series of processes for measuring the thickness of an object, and capable of minimizing the intervention of a user, is desired.